On April 21st, 2007, the students at the Mackay Centre School organized a dance for the Abhilasha Project around the theme of India. The dance was a great success and students and staff members alike enjoyed the music and entertainment. The students of Miss Sonya Dipaolo’s class have raised over 700$ for the Abhilasha school through various fundraising activities.

The Abhilasha Project and the Mackay School are working together to raise money to build the new school. This is a unique opportunity for children from both.

The Mackay Centre School is a school for deaf and disabled children located in Montreal, Quebec. The school “provides a safe, caring environment which empowers learners to achieve maximum potential with a curriculum that is dynamic and responsive to student needs. Mackay Centre School believes that all students are unique individuals with different learning styles, abilities, experiences, and different rates of development and learning. Students, parents and staff respect and appreciate these individual and group differences.”

“We decided to fundraise for the Abhilasha School for the blind and handicapped because after watching the video of the students who attend the school, we realized that these young people have similar needs and face similar challenges as our students but have so little. These children have so much strength and perseverance. They not only require but they deserve to have their needs met. The students at the Abhilasha School deserve to be successful and to reach their full potential.”

- Sonya Dipaolo, teacher at the Mackay School

For more info, http://www.emsb.qc.ca/mackay